Discipline Down Under (7 page)

“No. You didn’t. I wanted you to do it, though.”

Chuckling, Tripp tilted her face up an inch and kissed her lips again. A light kiss, full of promises they couldn’t keep.

“No more of this, minx.”

She sighed. “If you say so.”

“And no more talking about kisses. That’s an order.”

Shrugging, she adjusted her pack and compressed her lips. “Aye, aye, sir.”

Determined to resist her, Tripp trudged forward along the trail through the mulga. They had a ways to go, and there would be no more time for kisses.

* * *

Tripp slept out of the tent that night. Peg found it more than a little frustrating, and she could tell by his rustling that he wasn’t sleeping any better than she was. It seemed like she’d barely closed her eyes when a kookaburra started its morning cackle and oo-oo-ah-ah-tooky-tooky sounds. The loud birds woke them every morning at dawn. Peg liked it, in a way. It was better than an alarm clock—so much less industrial.

Tripp called her from outside. “Time to get up, luv.”

Before crawling out of her sleeping bag, Peg looked at the latest pictures on her camera. She barely ate the food Tripp had prepared, she was so excited by the idea of getting pictures of the nighttime animals. Flying foxes flapped in the nearby trees, eating fruit and gathering pollen as they went. They were big bats, nothing like those she’d seen while spelunking in Utah on a school expedition. And their chuckling was funny, not scary, even when they flapped close enough for her to hear their wings push the air. She got a few pictures of them, but her light source wasn’t really up to the task and the pictures were too dim for anything but her memory album. The bilbies came out better. They were a weird combo of cat, rat, and rabbit, in her eyes, and their snuffling around in the leaves was fascinating to watch. The pictures might be good enough to add to her work. She’d pretty much decided to try writing a photojournalistic article. It couldn’t hurt to give it a go; they could only say no, they wouldn’t hit her.

To that end, she repurposed her notepad to include her emotional reactions to the animals and plants, carefully keeping her feelings about her guide to herself. Mostly what she felt was defeated, but she refused to fall down completely. There was time. Two more nights to make something happen.

“Peggy? Ya coming out?”

Answering in the affirmative, she hurried out to start the day.

Although she hadn’t really eaten dinner the night before, Peg skipped breakfast, too, in order to minimize bathroom breaks. She didn’t know why that embarrassed her so much; she was being foolish, certainly. But that didn’t change the fact that she
was
embarrassed and wanted to keep those pauses as infrequent as possible. She swished a bit of water in her mouth after brushing her teeth, but had little more than that before they left for their day’s adventure.

After about an hour, Peg found her pack getting heavy. She stopped to re-adjust the straps, but it wasn’t any better when she hurried to catch up with Tripp. She felt like someone had put rocks in it overnight. But she was soon distracted by a particularly interesting bird, and Tripp quietly guided them into the bush so she could photograph it, and then he guided them back on to the trail again, Peg admired his ability to find their way through the dense growth, but then, she didn’t know how long he’d been doing this. He could have grown up out in the bush.

“Hey, Tripp?”

“Yeah.”

“How long have you been a guide?”

“About four years. Why do ya ask? Worried about getting lost?” There was humor in his voice.

“Just curious. Did you have to take a class or something?”

“I went to uni, but that’s not where I learned how to make my way through the bush. I mostly credit it to my partner, Victor Gray. He’s an
abo
and brilliant at getting into the bush and surviving on next to nothing.”

“Wow. I’ll have to meet him someday.” It was a hollow statement. There was little likelihood that she’d see Tripp’s partner after the bushwalking. Peg tried not to think about how unhappy she’d be separating from Tripp when the tour was over. If she could just convince him to give her a chance, coax him into a few more kisses, maybe they could make something out of their mutual attraction. The chemistry was there, but the logistics were a tangled mess. She’d have to go back to Perth upon returning to Katherine, and it seemed unlikely that Tripp would pursue her there or anywhere. She didn’t even know how long she’d be in Australia. Right now, her mother wasn’t talking to her, having called her a spoiled brat, but that was sure to change as her mother came to forgive her for wrecking her new car and dropping out of yet another college.

Maybe she was a spoiled brat. But now that she’d found her calling—nature photography—she felt much more centered and focused. Of course, she wasn’t quite sure how to make something of it. She’d never had a job, much less put herself out there for the public to judge. She might be a dismal failure at it, and that thought was scary. What if she couldn’t ever make it on her own? Fortunately, Mom and Dad could keep her afloat, but their patience wasn’t endless.

The pack on her back got heavier and heavier, and she stumbled a few times under its weight. Tired to the bone, she leaned against an acacia tree for a minute, catching her breath.

“All right?”

Peg nodded. “Fine. Just a little tired. Maybe we’re going too fast?”

He eyed her skeptically, but nodded. “We’ll slow down.”

She pushed away from the tree and stood up. Her knees were wobbly, and Tripp had to catch her before she tumbled to the forest floor.

“Yer pale, luv. When did ya last have a drink?”

“I dunno. A while ago.” She hadn’t had a drink at all, and her mouth was dry as desert sand. Maybe that had been a mistake. She took hold of her canteen and unscrewed the top, taking a quick sip and then closing it back up again. It was somewhat better, and shouldn’t be enough to send her off to pee.

Tripp was looking at her, frowning with concern. “We should stop and eat. Ya didn’t have breakfast.”

“I’m okay! Really. Let’s go on. I thought I heard an interesting bird call a while ago, and now I think it’s in front of us. Do you recognize it?” If she could get him off the subject of food and water, then he’d quit bugging her about it.

He tilted his head, listening. “Yeah, I hear it. I think it’s over there.” He pointed. “Ya okay to head off the trail a bit?”

She smiled, though it seemed to take a lot of energy. “I’m fine. Lead on!”

Giving her one more thoughtful look, Tripp led into the bush. They went along and the shade got darker and darker. Pretty soon it seemed like there was no light at all. And then there was nothing.

* * *

The sun was still shining brightly when Peg awoke. She was in her sleeping bag, out in a clearing. Tripp was fussing with a backpack, but he looked up when she stirred. Moving wasn’t painful, but she felt groggy and slightly nauseated. But something else was off.

“Why am I naked?” she said, her voice more high-pitched than usual. Although she was covered modestly by the sleeping bag, someone had undressed her, and since she’d been in a faint and Tripp was the only other person around…

“I checked you for ticks. You’ll be glad to know there were none. I did discover a few things, though, as I tried to figure out why you’d fainted.”

Yeah, why had she fainted? She remembered feeling like her backpack weighed about a million tons, and then kinda dizzy, but that was all she remembered of the episode. “Oh?”

He shook her canteen. “Full. Ya hardly drank anything today, Peggy. And I know ya didn’t eat supper last night or
brekkie
this morning. Ya fainted because ya didn’t take care of yerself. What do ya think this is? A golf course, where ya can just stop anytime and grab a burger? Yer in the wilderness. I’m yer only emergency aid. If ya have a health crisis, yer in deep shit.”

That all made sense, though Peg didn’t want to hear it. “Well, I had my reasons.”

“Ya fucked up. I ought to take ya back to the ranger station and be done with ya.”

“No! I’ll drink. Gimme the canteen.”

“Ya will drink and ya will eat, young lady, or back to civilization ya go.”

“Okay, okay.” He handed her the canteen and she gulped water down. It tasted so good, and she was so thirsty. As soon as she’d had enough, she put the cap on and handed it back. She was careful to stay in the sleeping bag. This was definitely not the way to be naked with Tripp. Embarrassment flooded her cheeks. He’d seen her naked while she was out of it. He’d had to look closely at her to find ticks. What did he think of what he saw? She’d probably never know.

Tripp gave her a Power Bar. “Eat.”

Peg kept her mouth occupied with the food for a few minutes, as she watched Tripp set up their tent and get things ready for another night in the bush. “Why are we stopping here? I’m okay. I feel fine. I just needed a little food, that’s all. I don’t want to be late getting back, and this will throw off our schedule.”

“Ya should have thought about that before ya starved and dehydrated yerself.”

She hadn’t
intended
to make herself sick. He was being too harsh about it. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, as soon as yer back to normal, ya will be very sorry.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ll talk about it later.”

“Let’s talk about it now.”

“No.”

“You’re so mean to me!”

“Shut up, Peggy.”

“Can I have my clothes?”

“Ya can have a shirt,” he said as he tossed her the yellow shirt she’d been wearing that day.

“I want my pants, too.”

“You won’t need them for a while.”

Uh-oh. Her bottom got all twitchy. “You can’t spank me, I’m sick.”

Tripp’s eyes pinned her. “Are ya? Are ya still feeling dizzy or anything else?”

“Ur… no… but I could pass out again at any minute.”

His grin wasn’t very nice. “I don’t think so.” It took a few minutes, but soon he’d prepared a large backpacker’s dinner for her. Peggy carefully and modestly put on her shirt, and sat up to eat the food. It made her feel much better, but she wasn’t going to mention it. Why bring on the inevitable any faster than necessary?

Tripp ate his own meal while sitting on his sleeping bag pad. Peggy liked the look of him there, all strong and broad-shouldered. He had good manners when he ate, never spilling a drop or burping or anything.

“I’d really like to talk about this some more, Tripp.”

“How are ya feeling?”

“I’m okay. I promise I won’t do it again.”

“I can’t figure out why ya did it in the first place.”

Damned if she was going to tell him about not wanting to take potty breaks. There was humiliation and then there was
humiliation
. She kept her mouth shut.

“Rest for a while.”

“Really, we should keep going.”

“Rest. Take a nap. I want ya fully recovered when I take my belt to yer arse.”

“Your… belt? Please, Tripp, I don’t deserve that. Haven’t I suffered enough?”

“No. Ya endangered yer life, and put me into emergency mode for no good reason.”

Well, at least a nap would keep him from spanking her right away. She snuggled back into her sleeping bag and closed her eyes, intending to fake sleep for as long as she could. Unfortunately, her body betrayed her and she fell asleep for real.

Chapter Five

Time passed and Peg awoke, feeling better than ever. Unfortunately, lying around made her antsy to do something.

“I’m bored. Can’t we walk for another couple of hours, Tripp? We stopped too soon.”

“No. We’re stopping here for the night. Ya lied to me about how ya felt. Ya lied to me about how much you’d had to drink. Ya endangered yerself and our trip. Ya could have died out here, Peggy. This is no small thing, you’ve done.”

“Yada, yada, yada. Don’t lecture me. No one is perfect.”

“No. No one is perfect. However, some things can be avoided with a little common sense. Something ya seem to be lacking.”

“Hey! You’re being an old fart. You sound like someone’s dad. With an Aussie accent.” She mimicked his accent badly when she said, “G’day, mate! How’s about we have some apple apples and drink a pot of piss?”

“I guess yer feeling better.”

“I’m fine. That’s why I want to stop sitting around here.”

“Get out of the sleeping bag.”

“What? Why?”

“I intend to spank ya for being such a
nong
.” He rose off the ground and brushed off his hands. “Do it.”

“I will not!”

“Ya were going to mind me; ya agreed to behave. Today, ya did an incredibly
yabbo
thing and yer going to pay the price for it. Stand up.”

“Will you talk English, for Christ’s sake?”

“Ya know exactly what I mean.”

She sighed and stood. “All right. I know. I deserve to be spanked.”

“I want ya to go over to that gum tree and put yer hands on the trunk. Stick yer butt out because that’s where I’m going to lay my belt.”

“This is really too much, Tripp.” She had to do something to get out of this spanking, whether she deserved it or not.

“I don’t think so. Go.”

Her shirt tail fell over her modestly enough, but Peg was still very uncomfortable being half-naked around him. Of course, he’d already seen her completely naked, so she was being silly. It didn’t matter, however; it still made her blush.

She didn’t think. She didn’t pause. It didn’t matter if it didn’t make sense. Peg needed to get away from the embarrassment and punishment. Without a backward glance, she started to run, barefooted through the mulga and acacia bushes. Sticks pricked her feet, but she had to keep going.

Behind her, still at the site, Tripp cursed. Pretty soon she could hear his footfalls behind her. Booted and long-legged, he was much faster than she. She deked and twisted around trees, trying to make it more difficult for him to catch her. Maybe if she got far enough away, she would make it clear that a spanking was the wrong answer to the problem. Nothing made sense, even this running away. Her feelings for Tripp confused her, and she realized she was running away from them, probably more than anything else.